Faithful JIG readers, I need your help. I'm being driven mad, you see. Utterly batty. This innocent-looking, seemingly simple little piece of interactive fiction has destroyed me and is now taunting my broken, weeping form. So many clues! So much information! Argh!

We have recently featured a number of pieces of ifiction, but Final Selection, created by Sam Gordon, is undoubtedly the most wicked to date (except perhaps Anchorhead, but that's another story...). The premise is quite simple: you are the prime candidate for the position of Director of the Museum and Institute for Puzzles and Problem Solving. If you secure the job you will enjoy a life (and sizable budget) devoted to the unraveling of enigmas and solving of conundrums.

There is, however, one final test: in order to prove your aptitude in this field, you must solve one "simple" puzzle yourself. To do so you must explore a single room, gathering clues and solving puzzles, until you finally reach the unknown problem's answer. Upon doing so, you ring a bell; the current Director will come in and ask you a question. If you answer correctly, the position is yours; if not, too bad, chump!

This game is a toughie. Actually finding clues is not a problem. Quite the opposite, in fact; the room is brimming with enigmatic pieces of paper, puzzles to be solved, items to be collected. And, of course, the game reminds you that some seeming "clues" are in fact red herrings. It's very easy to become overwhelmed. And, unlike many other pieces of IF, there is no handy-dandy hint system to keep the player on the right track.

Happily, in addition to being overwhelming, Final Selection is also extremely entertaining. I love the premise, love the setting, and am hopelessly addicted. The game is extremely clever and well designed; in fact, it won the L'avventura è l'avventura One Room Game Competition in 2006. It also isn't entirely unforgiving, as it provides an extremely convenient note-taking system that keeps track of all of the clues the player has collected.

If you generally like the IF genre, you will probably have a lot of fun with Final Selection. I know that, despite being stymied, I certainly have. So, faithful JIG readers, save me! Rescue me from the depths of my puzzle-induced despair. And, of course, enjoy playing this great and headache-inducing gem.

The links above point to JIG's internally developed Flash-based Z-Machine interpreter (thanks asterick!), with the story files hosted here. That means you can now play these games in your browser rather than having to download and run the game in a standalone interpreter.

If you would rather download the game, you may do so at the Interactive Fiction Database. If you choose to download the game, you will need an interpreter to read the z-file, just like most IF games: try Gargoyle for Windows, or Zoom or Splatterlight for Macintosh and Unix.

Here is a walkthrough. Notice that we don't have to pick up too many items, we just examine them for our notes and move on.

We'll start by examining everything that can give us clues - there are plenty!

ENVELOPE:

This is the only item on your person. Open the envelope to reveal a letter. Read the letter to discover the basic plot for the game, and mentions ringing a bell to tell the director the answer to the puzzle. You only get one shot at this. Also notice the Post Script: "I should tell you, firstly, that the answer is a single word; secondly, everything you need is in this room; and, thirdly, although there are many words in this room, you will be in no doubt when you discover the correct word."

DESK:

Examine Blotter: WHERE THINGS ARE CAN BE AS IMPORTANT AS WHAT THEY ARE. A good general tip for this game.

Pick up blotter: underneath is a blue paper which says "Dunce."

Examine Brown Book: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Inside the book is a brown paper which simply reads "5."

Examine Newspaper: "6 Across: Marxist found in shoals provides a clue of doubtful value (3,7)" From the interlocking words you can see that the second word of the solution begins with the letter "H".

Even a novice crossword puzzle enthusiast could tell you the answer to this clue is "Red Herring." Move along!!

Open drawer. Inside is a PDA, we can't use this just yet. But there is also a tin box which contains compasses, a set square, and a protractor, items which any technical artist can use.

Examine protractor: "Someone has made an ink mark on it at the 37 degree mark and has written the letter "N" on it." In other words, 37°N. This is not geometry, it's geography!

Examine Magazine: "WHEN, ROUND THE WORLD, YOUR SEARCH BECOMES DISTRACTED/LOSS OF MEMORY MAKES IT MORE PROTRACTED." This clue makes sense in light of the protractor. It will have to do with the globe.

FIREPLACE:

Examine painting. "John the Baptist in the Wilderness by Sir Joshua Reynolds."

Try to take the painting - even though you can't take it, you discover a post-it note behind the painting which reads "8."

Examine the fireplace: Wood and "Screwed up Paper." The wood is useless, however the paper reads: "He who hesitates is lost" "The early bird catches the worm" and the number "7."

There's a little more to the fireplace than the painting and the area with the wood. Examine the mantel for more clues!

Examine cigar tube. Look inside it and find tissue paper which reads "CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR!" Another red herring!

Examine yellow cassette: "A Trick of the Tail" by Genesis. (A real song, by the way!) We'll have to take this item as well.

When we get to the stereo: Insert the yellow Genesis cassette and turn the stereo on. Surprisingly we don't hear the promised song but "Number 9 … Number 9 … " over and over until you turn off the stereo.

CUPBOARD:

Open the cupboard and look inside cupboard.
We notice that this is actually a mini-bar with an empty ice box.
Examine bottle: "Being."

CORNER SHELF:

Open wooden box. This is an unusual music box, with a missing key. Also the ballerina is in front of a mirror with unusual markings. There's a nondescript, mysterious bronze sphere here, so we'll take this.

BOOK SHELF:

At first I thought the book shelf was inaccessible due to the mention of glass doors, however I realized that I was wrong, the glass doors were irrelevant.

Examine blue book: a math book, not relevant to the solution.

Examine green book: Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book." There's a word find in here, but it's not terribly useful, it says something along the lines of "Not every clue is relevant, beware some thing false."

Examine weighing machine: basically it's a scale with a left slot and a right slot in which you can place weights, and there is already a metal disc weighing down the left side.

Look inside cardboard box: Weights for the scale!

MAIN DOOR:

There is a notice there: "IF YOUR FINGERS ON THE LID JUST SLIP/PERHAPS I NEED TO GIVE TO YOU A TIP"

TABLE:

Examine steel box. When you try to open it, you just can't seem to grab hold of the lid. Perhaps the clue from the door will help.

Examine exercise book. "WHEN AT LAST THE LITTLE KEY YOU FIND/A WEIGHT IS SURELY TAKEN OFF YOUR MIND"

Examine black box. There are fifteen numbered buttons and seven small unlit lights.

HATSTAND:

Examine umbrella: there is a ferrule at the tip of the umbrella.

Remove the ferrule.

Open umbrella. Green paper: "Cupid."

Look inside top hat. There are two items.

Examine laminated card: this would be a really great cipher based on the atomic chart, however this is actually not used in this game (as far as I could tell).

Examine blue cassette: "A Strange Clue" by a band called "Blue Wave Conundrum."

When you get to the stereo and listen to this tape, the lyrics are quite cheesy. "I have five fingers on my hand/Only five digits...Yeah, yeah!/Only five words to tell you/How muuuch eeeoooaannnggg..." This last part is where the tape peters out and stops. Basically this clue is letting you know that you need to find five words (if you hadn't guessed).

SOLVING THE PUZZLES
BRASS ORNAMENT & BRONZE SPHERE:

We have an item with invisible writing so let's see if we can't guess how to read that writing.

Let's put the brass ornament inside the ice box, then close the ice box and cupboard. Wait a couple turns and go back to check on our brass monkey. (You can always type "Z" to pass time.)

Examine ornament: "BY FREEZING, I WASN'T HARMED AT ALL; NOT SO, FOR THE PROVERBIAL BALL" This is a clue to let us know that a certain ball will be affected by freezing.

What ball do we have that we're not sure what to do with?

Place the bronze sphere into the ice box, close the ice box and cupboard. This one will take a bit longer, so you might want to go work on another puzzle. The game will tell you that you hear something in the cupboard.

Open the ice box and you will find that while the bronze split in two, the contents of the bronze ball have frozen into an ice sphere.

Take the ice sphere and eventually it melt away to reveal: a memory card.

Examine the card: "FREEZING POINT OF W: 32 DEGREES" This is the other half of our geography puzzle!

THE GLOBE:

We have two halves to the globe puzzle, one a latitude from the protractor (37°N) and one a longitude from the memory card (32°W). Incidentally this location is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Turn the globe to the coordinates (ex. "turn globe to 32 degrees w") and the globe will open apart like a flower revealing a white note card. Incidentally I sometimes have trouble looking at the card depending on what items are around, the game seems to confuse this card for the memory card.

Examine white card: "In the beginning... Genesis Numbers Proverbs Joshua Daniel" A lot of these words ring a bell. We'll get back to this piece of the puzzle later.

THE BLACK BOX:

The answer to this puzzle is not obvious, and I did not come across a hint unless you count the mention of a math book as being a hint.

Technically you could just press the numbers sequentially until you found out the solution but there is a logical progression of numbers here:

This is the famous Fibonacci sequence, recently alluded to in pop culture by the films Pi (π) and The DaVinci Code. The sequence is made by adding the sum of the previous two numbers together. The black box opens.

Look inside the black box. There is a battery inside - take it.

THE SCALE:

If you play with the weights you can determine the weight of the disc on the left as

5 units,

then do a little addition to come up with the following:

Insert weight 10 in right slot, insert weight 4 in right slot, insert weight 6 in left slot, insert weight 3 in left slot.

Now the two trays will be level. Pull the lever and you will be able to look at the disc as it will be ejected from the scale with the rest of the weights.

Examine disc: One side has a series of numbers and the number "3" in the middle, the other side simply reads "Awash."

There's something else you shouldn't forget: remember the hint from the exercise book? "WHEN AT LAST THE LITTLE KEY YOU FIND/A WEIGHT IS SURELY TAKEN OFF YOUR MIND."

Have you examined the weights?

Open weight 10 and you get the key to wind up the music box.

THE MUSIC BOX:

We are going to wind that music box now. Insert the key into the hole and wind the key.

Press red button. Examine mirror.

Repeat these exact steps until it tells you that you have written down the sequence in your notes. The ballerina has given you a code:

X59631X.

It's not a stretch to figure out that the "X"s can be ignored - they were only a marker to tell you the beginning and the end of a five number code, 59631. This code will be used later on.

THE STEEL BOX:

As mentioned earlier, you can't quite grab hold of this box and the door gives you a hint about it: "IF YOUR FINGERS ON THE LID JUST SLIP/PERHAPS I NEED TO GIVE TO YOU A TIP"

Where have we seen a tip?

We remove the tip of the umbrella, the ferrule, which is machined similarly to the hole in the lid of the steel box.

Screw in the ferrule, and hey presto, a handle! Open the lid.

Look inside steel box.

Red paper: "Evade."

HANDHELD COMPUTER (PDA):

In order to turn on the PDA, you need to open it, insert the battery, and close it. Also you will need to insert the memory card into the recess.

When you do power up the PDA by closing it with the battery inside, you will get a prompt: TOUCH THE SCREEN TO ENTER THE FIVE-DIGIT SECURITY CODE: "You will surely find the answer, In the hands of the little dancer."

We already know that the ballerina in the music box gave us the code of 59631.

Type "touch the screen" and then you can type the numerical code.

You then get a really specific prompt:
1) Find 5 numbers and find the clue to get them in the right order.
2) Find 5 words and order them by their first.
3) Pair the last of each word with a number
4) You will now have five letter/number combinations such as A5 or I9
5) Look up each in the table below and find the letter at the intersection
6) This 5-letter word is the answer to the question

Below this is a matrix of letters which, eliminating some extra letters, reads: "THE CLEVER JOB SEEKER OUTFOXES THE CRAZY OLD MAN WHO POSES QUITE A SIMPLE CHALLENGE." This is just a little extra fun thrown in for our amusement!

Let's break down the solution one step at a time:

1)

Find 5 numbers and find the clue to get them in the right order.

We have indeed found five numbers, and the clue to get them in order.

The clue is from the globe: "In the beginning... Genesis Numbers Proverbs Joshua Daniel."

Remember how I mentioned the names sounded familiar?

Genesis was the yellow cassette which gave us "9," Numbers refers to the group of random numbers on the back of the metal disc plus the number "3," Proverbs refers to the "screwed up paper" which gave us "7" ("He who hesitates is lost" and "The early bird catches the worm" are proverbs), Joshua refers to the painting "John the Baptist in the Wilderness by Sir Joshua Reynolds" which gave us the post-it with "8," and Daniel is Daniel Defoe from Robinson Crusoe which gave us "5."

93785.

2)

Find 5 words and order them by their first.

Simply, the five words referred to by the song on the blue cassette, listed alphabetically:

Awash, Being, Cupid, Dunce, Evade.

3)

Pair the last of each word with a number

The last of each word means the last letter. awasH, beinG, cupiD, duncE, evadE. HGDEE. Pairing them means with the list of numbers from 1) - see 4) for the detailed list.

4)

You will now have five letter/number combinations such as A5 or I9

We get H9, G3, D7, E8, and E5.

5)

Look up each in the table below and find the letter at the intersection

We simply use the matrix to find the answer. Also, as someone else mentioned, be careful of the matrix especially if you're using the web version, the letters may not be lined up with the correct number. It is not difficult to compensate for this discrepancy, just move over one row so the letters are lined up. The downloaded version seemed to look much nicer in this section. (Thanks Jay for pointing out the downloaded version!)

6)

This 5-letter word is the answer to the question

Remember the end of the letter from the director?
"Although there are many words in this room, you will be in no doubt when you discover the correct word."

Ring the bell. (Yes, you're sure.)

He poses the question, "If we give you the job, tell me in one word what will be your top priority?"

Am I the only when where the game complains not having a wide enough window? Since the JIG-Layout takes a lot of space left and right I would prefer smaller margins to get a bigger game window.

Also the Font looks quite smirky on my screen. The was it looks I guess Flash doesn't do any Font-Anti-Aliasing, Font-Hinting or Font-Kerning. If the unlikely event occurs a game dev reads this, I'd suggest especially in this case to go for GWT instead of Flash, since with GWT you can utilize normal browser capabilities, and in case of text displaying there is, on most browsers, a lot of tech inside them to make them look good.

However I guess this game might utilize a general purpose interactive fiction interpreter. Not?

Fuzzyface - a note was included in the review about the width. If you wish to have a wider screen you will have to download the game and use a standalone interpreter. The screen width does not affect gameplay as far as we could tell.

About that element of the game, here's some helpful advice from the author:

"The above can result in objects being 'automatically' dropped in different parts of the room (on the table, the shelf, the hatstand, etc) so I have provided a 'WHERE IS' command that allows the player to locate any object that should be visible in the room. For example, typing 'WHERE IS THE HAT' (or just 'WHERE HAT') will elicit a response such as 'You can see a top hat on the hatstand'."

I've got a problem where typing in "notes" causes the screen to go black, and nothing seems to be able to bring the game back. I think I had just gotten to the point where my notes screen was full - maybe this somehow causes it? Maybe it has to do with the window width warning?

I've got a problem where typing in "notes" causes the screen to go black, and nothing seems to be able to bring the game back. I think I had just gotten to the point where my notes screen was full - maybe this somehow causes it? Maybe it has to do with the window width warning?

Um.. I can't figure out how to put weights in the machine. What is the exact command to do this?

I really like the idea of this game, but it's poorly implemented. For example,

if you're holding the memory card, it's impossible to take or look at the white card until you put the memory card into the computer. It doesn't matter if you specify "white card". I had a similar issue with the two tapes.

I've found that it helps to read the description from "look", look at everything referenced there, and then look at everything you get from looking. I've assembled huge amounts of random clues from this.

Here's pretty much everything I've found so far...

Open the drawer in the desk.
All the stuff on the Director's desk.
Post-it behind the painting above the fireplace. (I fond this with "take painting", but "look at painting" might work.)
The wood and paper in the fireplace.
Everything on the bookcase.
Everything on the table.
For the black box on the table, use the Fibonacci sequence of buttons (1,1,2,3,5,8,13). This will light up the lights and open the box. Take the battery and put it inside the computer in the desk drawer... yet to find the memory card though.
Note on the main door references the steel box (IF YOUR FINGERS ON THE LID JUST SLIP PERHAPS I NEED TO GIVE TO YOU A TIP). You can't open the steel box because your fingers can't grip the lid tightly... maybe use a coin to open the box (As in a "tip", money)?
The stereo will play the tapes you find (I found the yellow and blue so far.)
Canadiangirl said that the protractor had the clue on where to spin the globe. Still need the E/W clue though.
The hatstand has an umbrella and hat. You can look at the umbrella and unscrew its furrel or whatever it is. For the hat, I wore it and felt something inside. Look inside and you'll find... something, I forgot what it was.
Looking at the brass ornament from somewhere reveals that it could have invisible ink.
The corner shelf has a music box. You need a key to wind it, and you need to open it to reveal the dancer. I think you need to open it, get the key, wind it, then press the red button.
The cupboard is actually a minibar. Open it, look inside. The wine has a clue, but the ice box is empty.

The newspaper is obviously a red herring, and after going through the word search in "The Jungle Book" I found that the words rearranged come out to say:
BEWARE NOT EVERY CLUE IS RELEVANT SOME ARE FALSE

As for the tapes... Wasn't revolution nine by the Beatles? And can't you wind back a tape to fix one that's been stretched?

Man, that was fun. And all the things that had me stuck ended up being pretty legitimate puzzles, too. I never had the "oh, well I never would've tried THAT" feeling that I often get with point-and-click adventures. Lots of nice "a-ha!" moments all the way through.

Sorry to hear that people have been having trouble with the Flash version. I downloaded the z-code file and played it through Zoom, a Mac-based interpreter. I definitely endorse that route.

I will give a few hints to address questions/ideas people have had so far.

The colors don't really matter all that much. I think they're mostly put in so that you can actually distinguish between the many, many pieces of paper in the game.

As far as I can tell, the only two red herrings are the cryptic clue (which clues "red herring") and the Jungle Book puzzle (which suggests that there are more red herrings). Pretty much everything else ended up having some use.

The rhyming couplet hints are really really useful. I probably wouldn't have gotten three or four of the puzzles without those hints.

And, maybe a little more spoiler-y than the last:

There's one big puzzle you have to solve at the end. This is where you end up using most of the numbers and words you've been collecting throughout. I was missing one of these words, but I was able to extrapolate based on the other stuff. So when I say that everything has a use, I'm sort of guessing that the three things I never used, namely

Putting the metal ball in the ice box and waiting for a while makes it crack.

Then you can take the two bronze hemispheres and the ice sphere, wait for a while and the ice will thaw, giving you

a memory card with the other part of the globe coordinates. Put the memory card in the PDA, and turn the globe to match the coordinates, and

it will open and reveal a white card containing biblical references.

Also, thanks to Ninjaz, I got the weight machine done (although I don't know how he figured out the weight of the disc). Take all the weights and the disc, and examine the disc.

It has a bunch of 3 digit numbers, and a 5 letter word. I have found 3 other cards, also containing 5 letter words, and I believe they are linked to the

paper with the periodic table. I figured each word could be split up into abbreviations for chemical elements, and their atomic number could be added to match one of the numbers on the disc, but unfortunately that didn't work out.

As for the weights,

examine the weight marked 10. It can be opened and inside is a

little key. That goes into the musical box. So put the key in the hole, turn it and push the red button.

The ballerina will dance, and if you examine her, you will see that she points to a new number on the mirror. Do this 5 times and

you will get 5 digits, 59631. I'm sure those are for the PDA, but I tried putting them in forwards and backwards and it didn't work.

yeah, I noticed that too -- and it occurred to me that the decoded message from the word find in Robinson Crusoe -- Some clues are FALSE -- has another 5 letter word, next in alphabetical order. so -- a 5 letter D word? Digit? Demon? Donor? Doubt? Dunno. Not that that gets us into the PDA unless we can turn it into numbers; periodic table's the only obvious one there. I have figured out one use for it however:

look at the soot in the fireplace. rather depressing message to decode, however.

The D word is Dunce, and it comes from the blue paper on the desk. Interesting notion with FALSE though. And I'm wondering if there's any significane to the numbers on the disc. Checked the soot now as well, and I see what you mean.

So all in all, I'm sure the PDA is close to the solution if not the solution, but I'm clueless as to its code.

But I double checked, and I got the numbers in order 59631. I even tried backwards since they were on a mirror. And now I can't check it again, because when I restored the key was completely gone from the game. :(

Jason Harper - Thanks for the bug report about the update button in Safari. I've been able to reproduce that one, so I'll take a look at what might be causing that.

As for not getting the new version of the Flash interpreter, you might have to empty your browser cache to be sure Safari replaces it with the new one. Sounds like that's not happening by just reloading the page.

As for determining the exact weight of the disc in the machine, you could have:
-put weight 4 in the right pan
-notice that that the left pan is still heavier
-remove the weights
-put weight 6 in right pan
-notice that right pan is now heavier
-disc must have weight of 5

Not terribly relavant at this point, but I was wonding myself how Ninjaz did it.

it just occured to me that the mirror image of the the number the dancer points at should be the opposite number on the clock ... 12 becomes 6, 1 becomes 7 ... haven't checked the code yet ... if thats wrong than the mirror isn't really round as in encircling the ballerina ...

Genisis = 9 because of the yellow tape...
Numbers = 3 possibly cause of disc...
Proverbs - havent found out how many but it could possibly be the number of sayings given...
Joshua = 8 because of Post it...
Daniel = 5 cause of brown paper...
all a maybe

Thanks everyone, I have the paper I was missing now. Ninjaz, try taking another look at

the screwed up paper from the fireplace

about the ballerina -

I noticed that in addition to an X (which seems to just be a space to let you know that she's completed her cycle of 5 numbers) that there's a 0. which means that in addition to 5 digits that she points to, there are also exactly 5 digits that she doesn't point to. maybe the circle thing is relevant.

the scecurity code must be from the dancer because of the clue the pda gives you, "you will sure find the answer in the hands of a little dancer" so if your looking for the code start there please. (I need it too)

Huh... this question may or may not be spoilery, depending on the answer:

Where do you get the weights for the weight machine? Are they hidden, or is the game being rude? I ask because I randomly stumbled upon one while in front of the bookcase, because I accidentally typed "x weight" instead of "x weighing machine" But it never showed up on any of my other examinations of the bookcase or the weighing machine. And it doesn't give me any context as to where this weight (the #3 weight) is on the bookcase. Very confused by this.

Also, higher up, someone mentioned that there's a bottle of wine in the cupboard/minibar? It never told me that when I examined the open cupboard. Why would the wine be hidden?

If you happen to have gotten the password for the PDA, a better hint than that would be much appreciated. There is only one dancer, the ballerina, and there is nothing in her hands when I examine them.

I wouldn't really call it an implementation problem, it's just about being specific when there's more than one of the same things. For instance, there are 3 boxes, the brown cardboard box, the black box and the steel box. And 2 cards, the memory card and the white card. So when you want to take the white card, you need to specify it as WHITE CARD, not just CARD.

when i examined the desk chair, i got, "On the leather chair is ."
is this a glitch? is there something on the chair? i just started playing, so i don't want to look under spoiler tags to find out if anyone's mentioned this.

I concur with Themepark and Machu, it sounds like Zace and Hanoj are the only ones who've figured out the connection

between the dancer and the PDA security code and absolutely everyone else is stuck on this one.
The only other vaguely construable things I can come up with as a dancer are the globe (its gearing mechanism could be taken as "dancing", but it doesn't have hands, and it seems to be devoid of anything now that the Bible card is out, and while that did give us 5 digits, that doesn't work as the PDA code either); the monkey ornament (it has hands, but again, can't seem to get it to do anything) and the blue tape (song references having hands and having 5 digits; then it talks about 5 words which we seem to have from the alphabetical ones.)

Mixedmetaphor, I also got that problem, but if I dropped something on the chair, and then took it away, it seemed to fix it. Another one I noticed was in the menu for the notes, an item I obtained from the steel box was referred to as being from a wooden box (although when I selected it, its detailed description was correct).

as far as general progress goes,

at this point, we seem to have a lot more answers than questions. "what's the periodic table for" seems to have been answered by the code in the soot, but the question that "Foolish no hope" is supposed to answer is still unfound (unless it's also a red herring, but Hanoj indicated that only the newspaper and the word find were); the cigar tube and its message of "close but no cigar" also would seem to be useless for now; we have 5 (or maybe 6) words all of 5 letters beginning with the first 5 (or 6) letters of the alphabet, which Hanoj indicated were for the final puzzle, as well as the 5 digits that one gets by putting numerous clues together starting with the card from the globe and using the blotter's hint. Is it all depending on unlocking that PDA, or is there something else that can be figured out for now?

I also got the code 59631, and it's worked twice for me. Are you guys still getting the prompt to enter the five-digit security code? If not,
x computer
open shell
put battery in computer
close shell
touch screen
59631

Entering the code seems to work even if you haven't done anything with the ballerina yet.

I still get INCORRECT PASS CODE when touching the screen and inputting 59631 (without any spaces) and pressing Enter. Even tried restarting the game and just using the ballerina, battery, memory card and PDA, and still INCORRECT PASS CODE.

There's a hole in the side of the music box. Put the key in it. Turn the key to wind up the box. Press the button. X ballerina, and notice what number she is pointing to. Repeat "wind" "press button" and "x ballerina" until the game adds the code to your notes.

False clues:

I found that the "FOOLISH NO HOPE" message in the soot, crossword clue, note in the cigar tube, and the recording on the blue tape were all red herrings. I never actually used the clue from the blotter, but it's likely I just didn't understand it.

And for general progress:

It looks like you've gone as far as you can right now. You should have just 5 words beginning with the first 5 letters of the alphabet, and you said you'd already gotten the 5 digits from the white card in the globe. You're right in thinking that you need the computer to put them together. You should find that part pretty straightforward.

Themepark:
You may have to download the game in order to finish. I've been playing it using Gargoyle, and the code did work there. Just tried it in the JIG interpreter, and got the same INCORRECT PASS CODE message that you did. No idea why this might be.

Quick addendum, Themepark:
I did what you mentioned, and it still works in Gargoyle, if that helps. I hate to make you start over, but it looks like downloading the game might be the only way to finish.

Once you get the computer working and assemble all the clues, it's very straightforward. You'll be using the clues to spell the solution out letter by letter, rather than trying to guess a word from a riddle.

That said, I thought the final solution was kind of funny. It made me laugh, anyway.

For some reason, you only use 4 numbers for the code, drop the last number the ballerina gives you and it works -- this worked in the downloaded translator also -- I accidentally only entered 4 numbers and pressed enter and the computer opened -- not sure why though ...

Again I apologize for the quirks of the Flash interpreter. It's still a work in progress since many of these scenarios are difficult to test for until they come up within a particular game and how it's implemented.

That being said, I am please to report:

The PASSCODE issue with the Flash interpreter has been FIXED.

Check to see if you have the latest version in the right-click Flash context menu (Release 20080626).

You may have to empty your cache to get the new version or, if you're on Windows, CTRL-F5 to hard reload the page (not sure how to force that on a mac).

I loved the puzzle element, and I love ifiction, but I had to give this game up, the actual gameplay drove me crazy!

For instance, I had the same experience as zbeeblebrox where I could do stuff with things I hadn't discovered yet (like the weights). On the other hand, every time I tried to put something in the weighing maching slot, it repeately acted as if I was trying to put them in the stereo! No matter what I did! And I found hidden notes, then couldn't use them or read them - it just repeatedly said they weren't there. And then, the next sentence described how they were there.

sonicscrewdriver, as said before, you need to be more specific than just using the word slot. In that case it will assume what you mean, since there is more than one slot. So try left slot or right slot to use the weighing machine.

As for the hidden notes, you probably found them with the WHERE command. Disregard that command, forget it ever existed. Or you have found a note hidden in something, but you have to actually take it out of the thing to be able to read it. So TAKE it, then READ or EXAMINE it.

I got messed up on the final puzzle because I read the matrix of letters wrong. I should have just counted from the left instead of relying on the row across the top. I was one place off and couldn't figure out why for a long time. Eventually I got it.

Also I had the wrong C word, but I could easily guess from the other 4.

sonicscrewdriver, as said before, you need to be more specific than just using the word slot. In that case it will assume what you mean, since there is more than one slot. So try left slot or right slot to use the weighing machine.

As for the hidden notes, you probably found them with the WHERE command. Disregard that command, forget it ever existed. Or you have found a note hidden in something, but you have to actually take it out of the thing to be able to read it. So TAKE it, then READ or EXAMINE it.

But that's exactly what I did do! That's what made it so frustrating. I'd got the note and was actually holding the note while I tried to read it, and all the stupid game kept saying was 'I understood you as far as that you wanted to read the note'.

And I said 'left slot' or 'right slot' and went and stood by the weighing machine first before I did it, but it kept insisting on taking me back to the stereo!

In order to be fair, here are a few glitches that you might want to know about. They are in spoiler tags, yes, but it really is vital information if you want to beat the game through the flash interpreter. Seriously, it won't spoil anything - it's just better safe than sorry.

1. If you are ever asked to enter a 5-digit code, only enter the first 4 digits. I found nothing hinting toward this really, really bizarre situation of the 5-digit code being 4-digits, so I'm assuming it's a glitch. [Edit: This has already been fixed in the Flash version. -Jay]

2. Some of the text isn't aligned correctly for the final puzzle. Make sure that you shift the column labels one to the right if there is a column with no label above it :)

...I'm just glad that I was able to solve something as complex as this with only one spoiler-tagged hint (which basically just encouraged me to examine/look in/behind/shake everything) as well as wearing the top hat for the entirety of the game.

We ran into a problem similar to sonicscrewdriver's very early on in the game. One of the first things we did was

open the umbrella. A "slip of green paper" falls into your hand. Subsequently, it is referred to in the inventory as "green paper". Typing "examine paper" made me pick up the blotter. So did "examine green paper". Luckily, I remembered that it had initially been described as a "slip". That enabled me to examine it. But I think it's a big error when the precise description given in the inventory leads to a different object. This problem is compounded when there's no way to figure out that it's a "slip" after the initial description.

The other awkward parts of the interpreter were just inconveniences.
All in all a fantastic game. The puzzles were really satisfying and well put together. I really enjoyed it. Except the ending seemed awfully quick, especially in comparison to the polish and detail put into the descriptions of the room. A bit of a let-down. 4 and 3/4 stars?

Since my flash (after the cpu code for the game was fixed) wont let me load... I am kind of running through to see what you absolutely need to beat the game... I have everything but one of the papers...

That was one of the most well-written puzzles I've ever played, it was really hilarious and genuinely challenging but logical. For an avid puzzle solver it's hard to hit a brick wall, because there's always a new avenue to pursue. The clues are just enough to help you make sense of the rest of the info you've gathered. The interface is pretty easy to use, aside from a few little nuances I didn't like dealing with and the display was a little buggy looking. Mostly I just wish I could download this game, I've always hated playing text adventures in a web browser!

I don't think anyone has yet posted a full walkthrough, maybe if I have time I will attempt to write one. Great job Sam Gordon!!!!

Here is a walkthrough. Notice that we don't have to pick up too many items, we just examine them for our notes and move on.

We'll start by examining everything that can give us clues - there are plenty!

ENVELOPE:

This is the only item on your person. Open the envelope to reveal a letter. Read the letter to discover the basic plot for the game, and mentions ringing a bell to tell the director the answer to the puzzle. You only get one shot at this. Also notice the Post Script: "I should tell you, firstly, that the answer is a single word; secondly, everything you need is in this room; and, thirdly, although there are many words in this room, you will be in no doubt when you discover the correct word."

DESK:

Examine Blotter: WHERE THINGS ARE CAN BE AS IMPORTANT AS WHAT THEY ARE. A good general tip for this game.

Pick up blotter: underneath is a blue paper which says "Dunce."

Examine Brown Book: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Inside the book is a brown paper which simply reads "5."

Examine Newspaper: "6 Across: Marxist found in shoals provides a clue of doubtful value (3,7)" From the interlocking words you can see that the second word of the solution begins with the letter "H".

Even a novice crossword puzzle enthusiast could tell you the answer to this clue is "Red Herring." Move along!!

Open drawer. Inside is a PDA, we can't use this just yet. But there is also a tin box which contains compasses, a set square, and a protractor, items which any technical artist can use.

Examine protractor: "Someone has made an ink mark on it at the 37 degree mark and has written the letter "N" on it." In other words, 37°N. This is not geometry, it's geography!

Examine Magazine: "WHEN, ROUND THE WORLD, YOUR SEARCH BECOMES DISTRACTED/LOSS OF MEMORY MAKES IT MORE PROTRACTED." This clue makes sense in light of the protractor. It will have to do with the globe.

FIREPLACE:

Examine painting. "John the Baptist in the Wilderness by Sir Joshua Reynolds."

Try to take the painting - even though you can't take it, you discover a post-it note behind the painting which reads "8."

Examine the fireplace: Wood and "Screwed up Paper." The wood is useless, however the paper reads: "He who hesitates is lost" "The early bird catches the worm" and the number "7."

There's a little more to the fireplace than the painting and the area with the wood. Examine the mantel for more clues!

Examine cigar tube. Look inside it and find tissue paper which reads "CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR!" Another red herring!

Examine yellow cassette: "A Trick of the Tail" by Genesis. (A real song, by the way!) We'll have to take this item as well.

When we get to the stereo: Insert the yellow Genesis cassette and turn the stereo on. Surprisingly we don't hear the promised song but "Number 9 … Number 9 … " over and over until you turn off the stereo.

CUPBOARD:

Open the cupboard and look inside cupboard.
We notice that this is actually a mini-bar with an empty ice box.
Examine bottle: "Being."

CORNER SHELF:

Open wooden box. This is an unusual music box, with a missing key. Also the ballerina is in front of a mirror with unusual markings. There's a nondescript, mysterious bronze sphere here, so we'll take this.

BOOK SHELF:

At first I thought the book shelf was inaccessible due to the mention of glass doors, however I realized that I was wrong, the glass doors were irrelevant.

Examine blue book: a math book, not relevant to the solution.

Examine green book: Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book." There's a word find in here, but it's not terribly useful, it says something along the lines of "Not every clue is relevant, beware some thing false."

Examine weighing machine: basically it's a scale with a left slot and a right slot in which you can place weights, and there is already a metal disc weighing down the left side.

Look inside cardboard box: Weights for the scale!

MAIN DOOR:

There is a notice there: "IF YOUR FINGERS ON THE LID JUST SLIP/PERHAPS I NEED TO GIVE TO YOU A TIP"

TABLE:

Examine steel box. When you try to open it, you just can't seem to grab hold of the lid. Perhaps the clue from the door will help.

Examine exercise book. "WHEN AT LAST THE LITTLE KEY YOU FIND/A WEIGHT IS SURELY TAKEN OFF YOUR MIND"

Examine black box. There are fifteen numbered buttons and seven small unlit lights.

HATSTAND:

Examine umbrella: there is a ferrule at the tip of the umbrella.

Remove the ferrule.

Open umbrella. Green paper: "Cupid."

Look inside top hat. There are two items.

Examine laminated card: this would be a really great cipher based on the atomic chart, however this is actually not used in this game (as far as I could tell).

Examine blue cassette: "A Strange Clue" by a band called "Blue Wave Conundrum."

When you get to the stereo and listen to this tape, the lyrics are quite cheesy. "I have five fingers on my hand/Only five digits...Yeah, yeah!/Only five words to tell you/How muuuch eeeoooaannnggg..." This last part is where the tape peters out and stops. Basically this clue is letting you know that you need to find five words (if you hadn't guessed).

SOLVING THE PUZZLES
BRASS ORNAMENT & BRONZE SPHERE:

We have an item with invisible writing so let's see if we can't guess how to read that writing.

Let's put the brass ornament inside the ice box, then close the ice box and cupboard. Wait a couple turns and go back to check on our brass monkey. (You can always type "Z" to pass time.)

Examine ornament: "BY FREEZING, I WASN'T HARMED AT ALL; NOT SO, FOR THE PROVERBIAL BALL" This is a clue to let us know that a certain ball will be affected by freezing.

What ball do we have that we're not sure what to do with?

Place the bronze sphere into the ice box, close the ice box and cupboard. This one will take a bit longer, so you might want to go work on another puzzle. The game will tell you that you hear something in the cupboard.

Open the ice box and you will find that while the bronze split in two, the contents of the bronze ball have frozen into an ice sphere.

Take the ice sphere and eventually it melt away to reveal: a memory card.

Examine the card: "FREEZING POINT OF W: 32 DEGREES" This is the other half of our geography puzzle!

THE GLOBE:

We have two halves to the globe puzzle, one a latitude from the protractor (37°N) and one a longitude from the memory card (32°W). Incidentally this location is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Turn the globe to the coordinates (ex. "turn globe to 32 degrees w") and the globe will open apart like a flower revealing a white note card. Incidentally I sometimes have trouble looking at the card depending on what items are around, the game seems to confuse this card for the memory card.

Examine white card: "In the beginning... Genesis Numbers Proverbs Joshua Daniel" A lot of these words ring a bell. We'll get back to this piece of the puzzle later.

THE BLACK BOX:

The answer to this puzzle is not obvious, and I did not come across a hint unless you count the mention of a math book as being a hint.

Technically you could just press the numbers sequentially until you found out the solution but there is a logical progression of numbers here:

This is the famous Fibonacci sequence, recently alluded to in pop culture by the films Pi (π) and The DaVinci Code. The sequence is made by adding the sum of the previous two numbers together. The black box opens.

Look inside the black box. There is a battery inside - take it.

THE SCALE:

If you play with the weights you can determine the weight of the disc on the left as

5 units,

then do a little addition to come up with the following:

Insert weight 10 in right slot, insert weight 4 in right slot, insert weight 6 in left slot, insert weight 3 in left slot.

Now the two trays will be level. Pull the lever and you will be able to look at the disc as it will be ejected from the scale with the rest of the weights.

Examine disc: One side has a series of numbers and the number "3" in the middle, the other side simply reads "Awash."

There's something else you shouldn't forget: remember the hint from the exercise book? "WHEN AT LAST THE LITTLE KEY YOU FIND/A WEIGHT IS SURELY TAKEN OFF YOUR MIND."

Have you examined the weights?

Open weight 10 and you get the key to wind up the music box.

THE MUSIC BOX:

We are going to wind that music box now. Insert the key into the hole and wind the key.

Press red button. Examine mirror.

Repeat these exact steps until it tells you that you have written down the sequence in your notes. The ballerina has given you a code:

X59631X.

It's not a stretch to figure out that the "X"s can be ignored - they were only a marker to tell you the beginning and the end of a five number code, 59631. This code will be used later on.

THE STEEL BOX:

As mentioned earlier, you can't quite grab hold of this box and the door gives you a hint about it: "IF YOUR FINGERS ON THE LID JUST SLIP/PERHAPS I NEED TO GIVE TO YOU A TIP"

Where have we seen a tip?

We remove the tip of the umbrella, the ferrule, which is machined similarly to the hole in the lid of the steel box.

Screw in the ferrule, and hey presto, a handle! Open the lid.

Look inside steel box.

Red paper: "Evade."

HANDHELD COMPUTER (PDA):

In order to turn on the PDA, you need to open it, insert the battery, and close it. Also you will need to insert the memory card into the recess.

When you do power up the PDA by closing it with the battery inside, you will get a prompt: TOUCH THE SCREEN TO ENTER THE FIVE-DIGIT SECURITY CODE: "You will surely find the answer, In the hands of the little dancer."

We already know that the ballerina in the music box gave us the code of 59631.

Type "touch the screen" and then you can type the numerical code.

You then get a really specific prompt:
1) Find 5 numbers and find the clue to get them in the right order.
2) Find 5 words and order them by their first.
3) Pair the last of each word with a number
4) You will now have five letter/number combinations such as A5 or I9
5) Look up each in the table below and find the letter at the intersection
6) This 5-letter word is the answer to the question

Below this is a matrix of letters which, eliminating some extra letters, reads: "THE CLEVER JOB SEEKER OUTFOXES THE CRAZY OLD MAN WHO POSES QUITE A SIMPLE CHALLENGE." This is just a little extra fun thrown in for our amusement!

Let's break down the solution one step at a time:

1)

Find 5 numbers and find the clue to get them in the right order.

We have indeed found five numbers, and the clue to get them in order.

The clue is from the globe: "In the beginning... Genesis Numbers Proverbs Joshua Daniel."

Remember how I mentioned the names sounded familiar?

Genesis was the yellow cassette which gave us "9," Numbers refers to the group of random numbers on the back of the metal disc plus the number "3," Proverbs refers to the "screwed up paper" which gave us "7" ("He who hesitates is lost" and "The early bird catches the worm" are proverbs), Joshua refers to the painting "John the Baptist in the Wilderness by Sir Joshua Reynolds" which gave us the post-it with "8," and Daniel is Daniel Defoe from Robinson Crusoe which gave us "5."

93785.

2)

Find 5 words and order them by their first.

Simply, the five words referred to by the song on the blue cassette, listed alphabetically:

Awash, Being, Cupid, Dunce, Evade.

3)

Pair the last of each word with a number

The last of each word means the last letter. awasH, beinG, cupiD, duncE, evadE. HGDEE. Pairing them means with the list of numbers from 1) - see 4) for the detailed list.

4)

You will now have five letter/number combinations such as A5 or I9

We get H9, G3, D7, E8, and E5.

5)

Look up each in the table below and find the letter at the intersection

We simply use the matrix to find the answer. Also, as someone else mentioned, be careful of the matrix especially if you're using the web version, the letters may not be lined up with the correct number. It is not difficult to compensate for this discrepancy, just move over one row so the letters are lined up. The downloaded version seemed to look much nicer in this section. (Thanks Jay for pointing out the downloaded version!)

6)

This 5-letter word is the answer to the question

Remember the end of the letter from the director?
"Although there are many words in this room, you will be in no doubt when you discover the correct word."

Ring the bell. (Yes, you're sure.)

He poses the question, "If we give you the job, tell me in one word what will be your top priority?"

Yeah, great job with the walkthrough. I almost had one of my own finished, but you beat me to it! I like arranging the hints by location AND by puzzle -- that simplifies it a lot.

It's hard for me to bring myself to copy the exact answers, even with nested spoiler tags. I'd spend more words describing, so yours is about half the length of what I had so far, and much easier to read.

I second Ninjaz's three additions, plus one more:

You don't have to use the weight marked 10 at all when solving the weighing machine. You could put the 3 and 6 in the right slot instead, and add the 4 to the left.

The game loads directly on that page. It's a text adventure, so you enter text commands in the Flash window that should appear there.

Does that help? Or are you not even seeing the Flash window on that page? If not, would you provide a screenshot for me so I can see what you're seeing? You can send it to me at the Contact address in the page footer if you prefer.

Guys, before finding the weights, i dropped the metal ball into the machine hoping to balance the pans but i dont remember exactly which command i used, the thing is that I solved the machine puzzle but now it says that the metal ball is inside the machine and i cant pick it up ( because the machine is closed) and when i pull the lever it doesnt drop. Could anyone help me?

Quite fun. The step requiring the ice box was my only issue with the game; it was the only thing that really forced me to resort to spoilers. That, and the misaligned final decoding.

Now, if anyone really doesn't like moving all over the place to get your items, just remember to visit the hatstand early in the game and put on that top hat. You can now store an infinite amount of items on the top of your head.

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